Greater Sydney Local Land Services

On-ground conditions generally remain steady across the region, declining further in the northwest.

• Rainfall was above average for January, but not sufficient to bring widespread improvement in conditions for drought affected areas.
• Area in the northwest (for example around Wisemans Ferry) have seen a decline in the underlying indicators, with some parishes transitioning into the Drought Affected category during January.
• Continued rainfall will be important to ensure positive production outlooks are maintained for the remainder of summer and into autumn.
• The drought forecast suggests that the majority of the region will likely be in the Non-Drought category by the end of April 2025, with parts of the region transitioning into the Drought Affected category (with low to moderate model agreement).

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Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI)

Plant greenness levels remain above average for most of the region for the November to January period.

Note that some of the extremely negative NDVI areas (brown patches) are water bodies or changes due to urban development.

The NDVI anomaly is a useful measure of vegetation density and plant health. It estimates the amount of green vegetation there is in the landscape compared to what is expected at the given time of year, against the baseline period 1987 - 2020.

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Individual Drought Indicators

Drought indicators remain high across the three locations.

• The outlook remains positive for the remainder of summer at all locations.

To access a Drought History chart for your Parish, visit the Seasonal Conditions Information Portal.